Who are you? And why it matters in job hunting

February 13, 2017

The trials and tribulations of the graduate job search can sometimes make us blind to what makes us, us, and what we value as important. When you are desperately seeking a job after graduation you suddenly find yourself saying things like 'it doesn't matter that I don't agree with smoking, working for a tobacco company could be fun'. Hmmmm. It's so easy to forget who we are when there's a potential job on the line, and it's part of the reason so many grads end up in jobs they hate.

But if you want a job that is actually fulfilling, enjoyable and rewarding, then the key is the know who you are what what you stand for. For a lot of us, this isn't something we actively think about what we look for a job, instead we get sidetracked by the actual job role and whether we think we can do that. However even if you manage to secure your ideal job, but for a company who represents the reverse of everything you believe in, then we can tell you now it simply won't last. A fairly easy example to showcase this is that a vegetarian would never work for a slaughterhouse; but for many of us our values aren't always as crystal clear or close to the surface as this example, so it can be harder for us to identify what it is that we would value in a company.

Luckily this isn't something you need to go on a Buddhist retreat to find out; there are tons of tools on the internet that can help you identify what it is that you value as important, and even our Happy Work profile can help you specify what it is you're looking for in a job or company. So don't wait until you're in a job to discover you hate it, find out who you are and what you want before you start applying, and you can make sure you're actually on the lookout for the right thing, and increase your chances of getting it.